Pretty much the microsecond the Olathe city fathers approved Google Fiber, Google was in, and, intriguingly, it had this to say:

“Hopefully, this is the first of several announcements that we’ll be able to make about bringing Google Fiber to additional cities in the Kansas City metro area; so stay tuned.”

Google has stated, repeatedly, that it views Google Fiber as a business, and for excellent reason. The cable industry makes billions, has an aging business model that constantly drives up prices, and refuses to update its infrastructure because that’s both expensive and haaaaa-aaard. Google, meanwhile, makes money by selling ads and selling services as quickly as possible. Eventually these two systems were going to come into conflict.

One thing this expansion makes abundantly clear is that Google Fiber works well enough that Google wants to see how far they can take it. Olathe is going to be a test on how far they can take Fiber before interest and cost-effectiveness peters out. Once they have that data, then Google can decide what to do next… keeping expanding from Kansas City, or jump to a new city.